Help me plan a dinner for 100 people with $200~300

[Chufi]

The BB is a fine option, but you have to keep scale in mind here, too. You're going to have a massive pot of stew -- 10 # of beef alone, if I'm reading correctly. Think through your timing: I don't think you can brown more than a pound of beef in a pan, and each batch takes a good 10-12 minutes at least to brown it on all sides. That's two hours just browning the meat if you're alone and have one pan. Cooling it down takes time, too: you'll need to bring that stew down to a safe temperature by stirring it in an ice bath before you can stick it in a fridge, or it will sit at dangerous temps for hours and warm up everything else in there.

I've cooked for large and very large groups a couple of times and this is always my biggest challenge: timing. Something that is simple to do when you do it for 4 people is still simple to do for 100, but it takes a hell of a lot more time.

One more piece of advice: instruct your helpers and servers well and don't be afraid to be bossy and to take charge. Nothing worse than a bunch of 'helpers' standing around not really knowing what to do because you did not tell them. You can only do so much in advance, when it comes to serving time there will be a huge rush of activity (and adrenalin!) and this needs to be well organized.

But you will feel soooo good about yourself afterwards Tired, but good.

[rooftop1000]

If you have many people plating make sure you have a serving/measuring device for them so you can say every plate gets...2 scoops or 3/4 cup or whatever. You don't want to run out because someone thinks a "little more" won't hurt anything.

tracey

[indesertum]

Oh man.

That was pretty tough. It was fun, but pretty intense.

Some of the guys have waited and they set up a system of orders. I wish I had thought of this beforehand as it would have saved us a lot of time.

The Bourguignon was a real bitch to cook, but everything was a huge hit.

I forget who mentioned the tapenade, but a lot of people really really liked it. I think people got turned off at the description of a tapenade, but when they tried it they were pretty surprised.

I got a lot of requests for seconds (and thirds) and recipes. I'm glad the cooks got to eat pizza before the dinner, or otherwise we wouldn't have had a lot of time (or maybe even food).

I wish I read the post above before we started everything. Would have saved a lot of time and yelling.

Things got really hectic.

I will post photos as people start uploading them. I know some people had cameras with macro lenses. I'll ask them if they took any (I was too busy to take pictures).

Thank you guys so very much for everything. All of you were super awesome.

[indesertum]

; I apologize for the plating and general noobishness, but we did our best.

Thanks for everything guys

edit: I'm the dude with the topknot

Edited February 16, 2010 by indesertum (log)

[Tri2Cook]

; I apologize for the plating and general noobishness, but we did our best.

Don't apologize. That was a big undertaking, looks like you did a great job.

[tino27]

Agreed, absolutely don't apologize. You learned more practical information in doing this one event than any catering manual could teach you. Catering for large groups involves so much more than just being a good cook. Until you experience the highs AND the lows, you never really know what and how to plan.

It looks like everything came together nicely though. Congratulations on your event!

[David A. Goldfarb]

Congrats on pulling it off!

[Chris Amirault]

Radishes: great idea! It all looks great. What was the best dish? The worst?

Lessons learned?

[KarenDW]

looks great! Hope you had fun, too.

[indesertum]

Thank you guys so very much for all the kind replies.

I think the best dish was the Bourguignon. All the facebook and picasa comments were gushing about how good the dish was and soft the beef was.

I added green beans for color and on somebody's recommendation I blanched the carrots for color instead of adding them in the beginning to stew with the beef.

I personally really liked how the salad looked and I think the radish and the cantaloupe went really well with it, color wise and taste wise.

The tapenade was a huge hit. I think the description about olives, anchovies, and capers turned ppl off, but we made them wait so long I think they ate them anyways and it turned out they really liked them.

The pears were apparently pretty good even though we left out the cinnamon sticks on mistake .

I got a bunch of requests on recipes for the tapenade and the pears and one person asked if he could just drink the leftover poaching liquid.

Cheesecake was also very very good.

Not sure about a worst dish, but one thing I really really wish I had done was figure out a system for taking orders. Woulda saved us a lot of time and yelling

One other thing I really really wished we had the resources for is a proper sauce to plate the pears and bourguignon nicely.

They kinda looked bleh and I think so did the cheesecake. Could have used some sort of garnish and creative plating. I'm not even sure how to plate a cake nicely.

All in all a ton of fun. I think this is a first that they made the cooks and servers come out and receive some applause. ; I was so embarrassed I didn't know what to do, just kinda smiled awkwardly, said thank you multiple times, and ran back inside.

I honestly didn't do much. Just tried to delegate people to tasks. I was really glad that one of the cooks knew what he was doing and even showed me a cool way to cut onions (cut in half, cut diagonally to the center, and chop instead of the classic cut across first). I put him on carmelizing the mushrooms as he already knew how to do it. They were quite excellent.

Again thank you sooooo much. We honestly could not have done this without all the advice you guys gave me.

[Dave the Cook]

. . . .

Just tried to delegate people to tasks.

. . . .

Don't sell yourself short. This is exactly what a chef does. Congratulations.

[Chris Amirault]

Congrats is right. I'd have cried in bed all day if my first big dive into a group meal involved 100 people.

As you think about round two, remember these areas you'd like to improve upon (mise en place prep lists, plating, etc.) and build the meal around strengthening them.

[rooftop1000]

The easiest dessert sauces I can think of are - Frozen berries pureed with sugar or lemon juice, depending on if they are too tart or too sweet And - Melted Vanilla Bean ice cream

use squeeze bottles from the dollar store

tracey

[judiu]

I was thinking of cutting the pears into a 'fan' shape, plating with the cheesecake, and saucing the whole works with the reduced poaching liquid from the pears.

[indesertum]

I was thinking of cutting the pears into a 'fan' shape, plating with the cheesecake, and saucing the whole works with the reduced poaching liquid from the pears.

This is also what I wanted to do, plating a fan shape with the pears, but I didn't think we'd have enough time to cut all 52 pears into fans. Maybe if we had like 20, 30 people instead of 100.

That dessert sauce idea above would have been awesome. Easy to make, easy to plate. Next time..

[Chris Amirault]

Yeah, post hoc "easy to make, easy to plate" suddenly is a lot more appealing!

[Chufi]

Congratulations, you did a wonderful job.

If there will be a next time, you will benefit from everything you've learned!